


Recovery 101 for Recently Recussitated Superheroes

by longforgottenhymn



Series: Rescue [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is a Good Bro, Survivor Guilt, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, except it sort of is?, read the work before this if you want more info on that
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 11:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28813026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/longforgottenhymn/pseuds/longforgottenhymn
Summary: Peter Parker has died twice in the space of one month.First he crumbled to dust when Thanos snapped, then he went back in time and made sure Tony wouldn't bear the full weight when he took the infinity stones, and his heart stopped again. It's fine though, because he's alive now and everything's back to normal. Right?Tony's still getting over almost dying and watching Peter do so twice. Then there's the matter of consoling Morgan after her time travel journey to the past. Couple this with trying to sneak past Pepper to get a break from the boredom of bedrest (while getting Peter to do the opposite) and he's got his work cut out for him.Natasha isn't sure how to feel about getting back from the dead. Moreso, she doesn't know what to think about the sacrifice it took to bring her back.Or, how the Stark Cabin becomes an unofficial recovery space for recently recussitated superheroes.Sequel to Rescue.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Morgan Stark (Marvel Cinematic Universe), Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Rescue [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2112447
Comments: 8
Kudos: 73





	Recovery 101 for Recently Recussitated Superheroes

**Author's Note:**

> if you haven't read the story before this in the series, i really recomend you do so! however, if you don't feel like committing to 70.000 words, here are a few things you should know;
> 
> \- Peter and Morgan ended up in 1947 after an accident. Along with a post-endgame Steve, Peggy Carter, Howard Stark and Edwin Jarvis, they figure out a plan to return the kids to the future, and save Tony. Pepper and Rhodey come along later and join their rescue mission. Tony and Peter end up snapping together, Peter dies but is brought back by a shock from Mjolnir (courtsey of Steve).
> 
> \- Steve sacrifices himself at an old age (in 2023) to bring back Natasha.

‘I don’t feel so good.’

It’s a few nights after Morgan’s fourth birthday and she’s come down with a fever one of the other kids probably brought to the party.She’ll be back to normal within a week, but for now Tony’s always close by to soothe her when she coughs and read her a story when she’s awake. He doesn’t leave her side. Pepper switches with him when one of them has to prepare lunch or do something or other around the house, but otherwise he’s always there.

‘I don’t feel so good, daddy,’ she repeats with her bottom lip wobbling. She’ll be back to normal within a week. He knows that, but as soon as she says it his heart seizes with fear.

‘What’s wrong?’ he manages to get out. It’s the same as always – her throat hurts, she’s cranky. Morgan falls asleep a few minutes later, exhausted.

Tony can’t get the words out of his head.

 _Mr Stark…_ a once-familiar voice surfaces. He sits in the living room, clutching that old photograph Pepper framed for him when they moved here. It’s one of the few things he can bear to look at. FRIDAY has countless of videos from the good old days, the times Peter came over to the Compound, the times they worked in the lab. Tony hasn’t watched any of them in years. The voice in his head has probably changed, warped into something that isn’t Parker’s at all.

He pulls up some surveillance footage from the kid’s Spider-suit from a random date. In July 2017 Spider-man saves a guy from being run over and gives directions to a couple of teens. The rest of it is uneventful, dull. Tony can’t tear his eyes away.

He moves onto videos where he can see the kid’s face. It’s October and Spider-man gets stuck in a goo the latest wanna-be supervillain spewed all over Brooklyn. The footage comes from Mark 47. If memory serves right, the air reekedand the goo visibly oozes on-screen – Peter’s mask is nowhere to be seen and he holds a hand over his nose with a grimace. As soon as Stark lands the kid’s lips tug upwards into a smile.

_Hey, Mr Stark! I’ve gotten myself into a sticky situation here._ _Think you could help me out?_

Pepper finds him at midnight, running a hand through his hair from behind the couch. In front of them Peter’s filming a message for his friend’ birthday. Tony zooms in to interrupt it and ends up giving Ned his well wishes too. It ends with the both of them laughing.

‘You did good with him,’ Pepper says softly.

‘I tried.’

 _Mr Stark, I don’t feel so good._ He can hear it with the kid’s voice now and it makes the memory all the more real. _Please, I don’t wanna go, I don’t wanna go!_

‘He was so young, Pep.’

She rounds the couch and sits beside him, wipes a couple of tears from his cheek.

‘I know,’ she says.

Tony once had a dream, just a few days after Pepper got pregnant, that they had a kid. A child on a beach laughing, then him rocking a baby to sleep.He’d known he was a dad because of the warmth he’d felt in his heart in those moments, he’d known because he recognised the feeling. _It felt so real._

When Steve Rogers comes to his doorstep half a year later he can’t let it go. Stark’s wondered ever since Titan what Strange’s words meant. _This was the only way._ Perhaps there’s still hope after all, perhaps this is how it was always meant to be. Perhaps he can bring everyone back.

He sits down with that same old photograph again. They can’t risk the last five years, can’t risk Morgan, but he doesn’t dismiss the idea right away. There’s a hope in his heart and it feels familiar. It sounds like Peter Parker’s laugh.

* * *

The hug on the battlefield is fleeting but solid, real, enough to put Tony’s worries to rest. It’s destined to be their first and last. Thanos gets the stones, Stark steals them back. He prepares to snap.

Then time changes.

Peter stands across from him, right in the eye of the storm and Tony’s never been so terrified. Back and forth they go, Parker dead on Titan, Stark on the battlefield, and then there’s this moment, looped over and over again after all they’ve done to rectify the other’s death. At last they snap, together, and the time loop’s broken. The kid ends up lifeless in the forties. Tony hugs him again when lightning hits his body, restarting his heart.

‘Damn you,’ he whispers into Peter’s hair. ‘If you ever save my life again, I swear to god, I’ll kill you.’

The kid can’t laugh, but the hacking cough that comes next is close enough.

* * *

Their eyes meet on separate beds in the hospital. They’re being wheeled into the private rooms that will become home for the next couple of weeks, exhausted from what will hopefully be the last time travel journeys of both their lives. Tony feels like death. Peter looks it.

The kid smiles though and a familiar warmth rises in the man’s heart. It’s nothing like what he feels for Morgan, it’s not as strong, but it’s persistent and bright and he can’t help but embrace it. It’s still laced with grief and pain but it doesn’t hurt as much any more. He doesn’t push it away.

Pepper brings the photo to the hospital, sets it on a bedside table. Morgan picks it up.

‘I like having a big brother,’ she says.

Tony doesn’t correct her.

**Author's Note:**

> I plan on updating this fic regularly once I've finished writing it - until then, there'll be a gap until the next update. You can always bookmark it if you're interested though! :)
> 
> Thanks for reading <3


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